The Chicago Park District plans to move forward with the six tennis courts at Peanut Park despite opposition voiced on Wednesday by some downtown residents who prefer the park be left as open space instead.

The new Maggie Daley Park site includes the Daley Bicentennial Plaza, Cancer Survivors Garden and Peanut Park. Peanut Park, which was used as a passive space, is located in the northeast corner near Lake Shore Drive and Randolph Street.

Half of the dozen tennis courts once located at the Daley Bicentennial Plaza site are planned to be rebuilt at Peanut Park.

Resident Jon Mitchell said putting tennis courts there will destroy the multiuse, year-round Peanut Park and turn it into a tennis center that can only be used a few months in a year. He said there were tennis courts less than a mile away in Grant Park.

Another resident Stephen Cohen countered that Peanut Park "represents the last piece of open space available for the park district to replace a fraction of the 12 courts that served Grant Park players for 40 years."

Some residents of the New East Side neighborhood north of the site said their objections weren't heard and made the last ditch effort at Wednesday's park district board meeting to scrap plans for the tennis courts.

Members of the Save Peanut Park group said the community was not adequately informed while acknowledging they had some fault in dropping the ball on the issue.

Park District CEO Mike Kelly said there were numerous public meetings held. Renderings of the park project included the six tennis courts at Peanut Park and the plans also went to the Chicago Plan Commission for approval.

"Everybody had a voice. Everybody had an opportunity," he said.

The main issue for resident Pat Reis was that the tennis courts will leave no space for park visitors to play flag football or kick a ball around.

"It's taking up too much green space," she said.

Supporters of Keep Tennis in North Grant Park, which had its own petition campaign as well, said the site has plenty of open green space.

Kelly said having six tennis courts there was reasonable. "Six tennis courts are going to make a very small percentage of those five acres," he said.

The plans for the tennis courts will move forward. "The park district is going to honor its commitment," Kelly said.